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| A mid 19th century bodice. |
So this little bodice is another eBay find. I've been on there a lot in the last couple months...
The outter fabric is a very fine, thin, plain weave, cream colored silk. The lining is a thin twilled cotton. It's much softer and more thin than any twilled cotton I have seen available. Nothing like a jean or coutil. The bodice appears to be stitches with a combination of silk and cotton thread. It also appears two different colors and weights of silk thread were used: a fine, light silk on the exterior and a thicker, darker (perhaps darkened with age) silk was used on the inside. The bodice is constructed with machine and hand stitches.
The bodice shows signs of alterations, specifically being let out at the side seams. The arm holes are very tight, at just shy of 10" around. The front is boned in multiple spots, the darts encasing the 1/4", flat bones. The back closes with hook and eyes on the lining and holes, for lacing, on the silk. The eyelet holes are finished in small, tight overcast stitches, not buttonhole. The center back is piped, the piping encasing thin, squared boning, which shows where the boning has broken and the silk has split. The boning is very thin, but appears to be whalebone wrapped in paper. The edges of the bodice, along with the armscye, are piped as well, with 8-ply white cotton cord. The top and bottom edges are faced with the same cream silk. The bertha, or the front bust decoration, is stitched into the seam at the shoulder and sleeve, but only held down with a pin at the center front.
The pictures are taken with the bodice against a 1" square grid, for scale. Loosely measured, the bodice is 28" at the bust and 21" at the waist. The center front neckline to point is 14.5" and the center back is 15.5".
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| The armscye is piped. The sleeve is pleated to the armscye. The bertha is joined at the seams of the sleeve and shoulder. |
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| Inside the sleeve. You can see the cotton lining. The sleeves probably used to puff. |
